{"id":215917,"date":"2022-07-04T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=215917"},"modified":"2022-06-30T04:25:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T03:25:56","slug":"u-s-exposed-as-secret-partner-in-israeli-airstrikes-against-syria-that-violate-international-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/07\/u-s-exposed-as-secret-partner-in-israeli-airstrikes-against-syria-that-violate-international-law\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Exposed as \u201cSecret Partner\u201d in Israeli Airstrikes against Syria that Violate International Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dirty War in Syria Continues as Media Attention Focuses Elsewhere<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Israel\u2019s F-15 fighter jets in the air over Mount Hermon in Israel near the Syrian border. [Source: rt.com]<\/p><\/div>\n

29 Jun 2022 – <\/em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em> recently reported<\/a> that Israel secretly coordinates with the U.S, on many of the airstrikes it carries out in eastern Syria near the al-Tanf military base, a U.S. outpost near the Syria-Jordan border.<\/p>\n

Since 2017, the Israeli Air Force has cleared all planned flights with the U.S. Central Command, which conducts an assessment<\/a>. The command also reports details of planned flights to the U.S. Defense Secretary and others, who can also choose to conduct assessments.<\/p>\n

The Israeli strikes are illegal under international law and, according to the Russian ambassador to Syria, Alexander Yefimov, \u201cleave human casualties, cause tangible material damage, violate Syria\u2019s sovereignty, pose a threat to international civil aviation, and in general increase tension in the already escalating military-political situation.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/si.wsj.net\/public\/resources\/images\/OG-GI200_7044c5_355PX_20220616134416.jpg\"
Map of Israeli airstrikes in Syria between 2020 and 2022 based on public reports. The \u201cx\u201d is the spot of the al-Tanf air base. [Source: wsj.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Officially, the purpose of the strikes is to interrupt Tehran\u2019s flow of weapons to Lebanese Hezbollah\u2014which established a \u201cGolan liberation brigade\u201d in support of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad\u201d\u2014<\/a>and to diminish Iran\u2019s military forces and proxies in Syria.<\/p>\n

The U.S. claims that it wants to ensure that Israeli bombing raids do not interfere with the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State militants.<\/p>\n

However, the Islamic State is the main opposition force to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom both Washington and Israel have long tried to overthrow.<\/p>\n

The location of the strikes underscores an ulterior agenda, furthermore, which is to help sustain the U.S. military outpost at al-Tanf which has been targeted in drone attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Al-Tanf is located strategically near oil fields<\/a>; U.S. troops were positioned there to \u201ckeep Syria\u2019s oil,\u201d<\/a> as Donald Trump acknowledged when he was president.<\/p>\n

\"Al-Tanf
Al-Tanf military base, southeast Syria. [Source: npasyria.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In August 2020, Trump granted a sanctions waiver to a Delaware-based oil company, Delta Crescent Energy LLC with close ties to his administration, allowing it to develop oil fields that had been captured from the Islamic State by the Syrian Democratic Forces, Washington\u2019s proxy troops consisting mainly of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military trucked in components for two modular refineries to assist the company in exploiting and marketing Syrian oil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though the Biden administration rescinded the sanctions waiver<\/a>, it has sustained at least 900 troops in Syria<\/a> and bombed targets in Syria near the Iraqi border allegedly targeting pro-Iranian militias<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Syria\u2019s Foreign Ministry told the official\u00a0SANA\u00a0news agency that the air raids\u2014which killed a child on the Iraqi side of the border\u2014demonstrated \u201cthe recklessness of U.S. policies and the need for Washington to withdraw its aggressor forces\u201d from the region.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s Long War on Syria<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As the World Socialist website put it, U.S. imperialism has been at war in Syria since launching a regime-change operation in 2011<\/a>, using CIA-backed Islamist militias as its proxies in a bid to topple Assad\u2019s government and impose a U.S. puppet government in Damascus.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration launched a direct military intervention in Syria as well as Iraq on the pretext of combating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an offshoot of the very Islamist militias that it had previously armed and funded. The toll of these interventions is exemplified by the hundreds of thousands of dead and the millions of displaced.<\/p>\n

\"Anti-Syria
Protesters tried in vain to stop the U.S. war on Syria. [Source: examiner-enterprise.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now the U.S. remains in Syria for the purpose of controlling and exploiting the country\u2019s oil, as part of a broader military campaign to \u201cimpose a neo-colonial U.S. hegemony in the Middle East at the expense of Iran, and the countries the Pentagon defines as \u2018great power\u2019 rivals, China and Russia\u201d<\/a>\u2014which is allied with Assad.<\/p>\n

Working Together to Hemorrhage Syria to Death<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For the Israelis, the overthrow of the Assad government would represent the final death of the Arab nationalist threat that has overhung the Jewish state since the early 1950s.<\/p>\n

Such an outcome would also facilitate much greater freedom of action for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the region, with Syrian ballistic missiles, chemical weapons and air defenses all having for decades been directed primarily at restraining Israel\u2019s military power.<\/p>\n

Israel furthermore wants to strike a blow at Hezbollah and Iran, which is allied with Assad, a Shia Allawite. Moshe Ya\u2019alon, Israeli Defense Minister from 2013-2016, stated that, \u201cin Syria, if it is a choice between Iran and the Islamic State, I choose the Islamic State \u2026 Our greatest enemy is the Iranian regime that has declared war on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"A
Moshe Ya\u2019alon: \u201cI choose the Islamic State [over Iran].\u201d [Source:\u00a0wikipedia.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Former Israeli Consul General in New York Alon Pinkas told\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0in 2013<\/a> that, for Jerusalem, \u201cthis is a playoff situation in which you need both teams to lose, but at least you don\u2019t want one to win [Syrian government forces]\u2014we\u2019ll settle for a tie. Let them both bleed, hemorrhage to death: that\u2019s the strategic thinking here. As long as this lingers, there\u2019s no real threat from Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Alon
[Source: al-monitor.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

These latter comments help to explain the purpose of the recent airstrikes better than anything and why the U.S. would assist with them.<\/p>\n

By bleeding and hemorrhaging Syria to death\u2014including also through the imposition of devastating sanctions\u2014the U.S. could ensure that Assad remains isolated and Syria weak. Then it will remain unable to project its influence and revive the Pan-Arab project that several generations ago had begun to challenge U.S. primacy in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of <\/em>CovertAction Magazine and author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including <\/em>Obama\u2019s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and T<\/em>he Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018). He can be reached at: jkuzmarov2@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 covertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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